FASTER FISHING
Making a big catch is not just about having the right bait in the right place at the right time, its also about maximising your actual fishing time. Matchmen and keen freelance anglers will always have a ready baited rig hung on their tripod so that as soon as an old rig is wound in, they clip the old one off, clip the new one on and recast. The whole process takes less than a minute. Re baiting the same rig all the time takes at least three times as long. Look at that over a 5 hours session casting say four times an hour and that makes a full 40 minutes wasted at least.

Now think about fishing two rods at the same time, which most sea anglers do nowadays. That saving is doubled again to 80 minutes. That's 80 minutes more fishing time in the same 5-hour session. Well worth it, eh!

Getting more fishing time!

If you're fishing a rig with just one hook snood on, say for cod or bass, then you only need switch the hook snood with a ready baited one. Gemini does the Genie Snood Clip designed just for this purpose, which is tied to the end of the hook snood and clips on to the rig swivel. Having spare snoods ready to clip on in your rig wallet also reduces lost time when snoods get chaffed or weakened on snags and fish.

TIPS AND TRICKS
If you ask in shops and dry cleaners you can often buy wire coat hangers for a penny each, some even give them away. You can cut the wire in to suitable lengths and use them when making leads for wire tails.

I also use them for making rig connectors for rock fishing rigs. Just use long-nosed pliers to make a round eye by bending the wire at each end over on itself until a circle is formed.

BAIT PUMP TACTICS

Using a bait pump

Bait pumps can be much more efficient for collecting black lug and more importantly leave minimum impact on the sands surface. Fact is many anglers try them but can't get the results they should. Using the pump is an acquired "knack", but it's not difficult.

The best time to pump lug is on the very biggest spring tides at low water when the tide goes out and exposes sand that rarely sees the light of day. This is where the best of the lug are. Watch for high-pressure systems with an offshore wind. This tends to push the tide out further than the tide books predict and can expose ground that maybe is only accessible a few times a year.

Ideally you need to get there about an hour before low water, but the worms are deeper at this time and not always so easy to pump. The best time is just after the tide turns to flood back in. The worms rise in their burrows as the new flood tide begins and are much more accessible.

Black lug burrow pretty much vertically. To use the pump, place it vertically over the lug cast and draw the handle up about 8-inches taking out a short core of sand. Push the handle down to release the core and go straight back in to the same hole going down about a foot pushing down with the pump and at the same time drawing the handle upwards to take a core out. The worm is usually in the second pump. It's worth trying a third time, but you've usually missed it if it's not in the second core.

It helps if you pump in an inch or two of water. This gives good suction and the worms are usually shallower. Don't try to push the pump too deeply. Shallow pumps taking about 8 to 10-inches of sand at a time is plenty. Turn the core of sand over with your foot as often the worm is hidden along the length of the core. Breaking it open exposes the worm.